Democratic US Senate candidates speak at forum as Maryland primary nears
On a day of scheduled celebration in honor of United States Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., who is not seeking reelection after nearly 60 years in public office, Democratic candidates competing for the seat (and for one in the U.S. House of Representatives) spoke at the Western Maryland Democratic Summit on Saturday.
As candidates competing to represent Maryland’s Sixth Congressional District spoke at the podium, the area’s current congressional representative and U.S. Senate candidate strolled into the Rocky Gap Resort’s Allegheny Events Center, sporting a pair of grey New Balance shoes.
“It’s great to be back in Western Maryland,” said U.S. Rep. David Trone, D-6th, when it was his turn to take the lectern, framed by windows with lakeside views and the woods of Rocky Gap.
He recounted his experience as the district’s representative over the last five years, listing Democratic victories in the district from Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater to state Del. Brooke Grossman, D-Washington, in Hagerstown to having Democratic candidates on the ballot for positions in Garrett County, the state’s and the district’s westernmost county.
“We’re not winning yet,” said Trone, of Democrats in Garrett County (population 28,000), “but we’re represented, and that’s a start.”
Wicomico's State of the County: Wicomico leaders outline busy year of expansion, investment in State of County address
Prince George's County Executive Alsobrooks speaks in Western Md.
Fellow Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks made a different kind of appeal to representation when she spoke to the several hundred assembled at the summit.
“I believe that it is important as we look out at our (congressional) delegation that everyone of us ought to see ourselves in that delegation, of every race, of every gender, and every background,” she said. “We have a 10-person delegation, and I know offending anyone because Sen. (Chris) Van Hollen agrees with this also, we have eight congressman and two senators, and we don’t have any women representing us in Washington.”
She said the first bill that she would co-sponsor is the Women’s Health Protection Act, legislation that seeks to codify Roe v. Wadein federal law and guarantee access to abortion. (Trone was one of 215 co-sponsors of legislation with the same name in the last congressional session, which did not become law after failing to receive the 60 votes required to advance in the Senate.)
More: From House seat, Trone aims for U.S. Senate in Maryland
More: PG County Executive aims to expand work statewide as Maryland's next U.S. senator
Maryland’s open U.S. Senate seat of national, regional importance
Both Democratic candidates are aiming for the Senate seat critical to the majority in the chamber, while the state’s former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, is seeking to be elected too next month in his party’s primary. Currently, there are 48 Democratic senators, 49 Republican senators, and three Independent senators (each of whom caucus, or meet, with the Democratic senators).
With U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., not seeking reelection to the position he’s held since 2010 in the neighboring state that has three Republicans of that state’s four person delegation, the open U.S. Senate seat in Maryland, with its over 2 million registered Democrats and less than a million registered Republicans, has national as well as regional significance.
The two Maryland Democratic candidates spoke to potential voters in the region during separate interviews with a Maryland USA Today Network reporter after stepping down from the podium at the Allegheny Events Center in Flintstone about 10 miles east of Cumberland.
“We will never leave (the people of Western Maryland) behind,” said Trone, during a morning interview, in a line with echoes of the state’s welcome signs that have read “Leave no one behind” since the inauguration of Democratic Gov. Wes Moore last January.
(Moore, who has endorsed Alsobrooks in her bid for the U.S. Senate, addressed the summit’s attendees in the afternoon after a morning visit to Frostburg State University.)
In the interview, Trone, who got a nearly unanimous standing ovation from the attendees at the 20th annual Western Maryland Democratic Summit as he stepped away from the lectern, said: “We’re always going to continue to drive things for all parts of the state.”
Alsobrooks, about a two-hour drive away from the jurisdiction she currently leads as county executive, called her experience “important.”
“I want (the people of Western Maryland) to hear from me that I not only have the experience of passing important legislation and passing policies,” said Alsobrooks, executive since 2018, who previously served as Prince George’s County State’s Attorney, “but I’m the only candidate in the race who also has the practical experience of knowing how that policy impacts the people.”
Trone has held the sixth district congressional seat since entering public office in 2019. Eight other Democratic candidates besides Trone and Alsobrooks are also on the party’s ballot for U.S. Senator in the primary election. None of the other candidates were on the summit program, which was presented by the Western Maryland Democratic Political Action Committee.
Lieutenant Gov. Aruna Miller, a primary speaker at the summit who addressed the crowd in the morning in between when Alsobrooks gave her remarks and Trone gave his, concluded her remarks by saying: “What happens in Western Maryland happens in the rest of Maryland.”
The Presidential Primary Election Day is Tuesday, May 14, 2024.
More: Maryland presidential primary Election Day is next month, and here's what you need to know
Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.
This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: US Senate Democratic candidates gather in Western Maryland for summit
